I was wondering if anyone could recommend either a software or hardware solution for a phone alert system. It would mainly be used in the case of errors on some servers and in case of a server failure. I already have an email system in place (Spiceworks!), but the company would like me to research a phone solution.

I've always used Microtik's Dude program for server and printer outage notifications. I'm not sure if Nagios can do it but I like how the Dude has scheduled times. I'm not notified of printer or AP outages outside of business hours. Servers are 24/7.

I believe you can run a schedule scan on anything within your network 24/7 or even a customize schedule. We run our 24/7 as well.. I like to research to see the product you recommended. Always look forward to new products I can try out.

A phone call to whom? Saying what? Are they thinking that there's some magic that would allow your Exchange server to self-diagnose and have a verbal conversation with someone?

+1 for email or text messages that reach support personnel on their phones. Spiceworks custom alerts can do much of this already "Device W has been offline for X minutes", "Service Y has failed on Device Z". Nagios can do more granular monitoring and alerting, especially on networking matters.

Never heard of any system that would actually call you if a server went down. I don't understand the reasoning behind this. If they want to go old school, there are ones out there that will send an alert to a pager.